NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday hit back at Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath over his “Urdu language” remark, saying the state has the most number of inoperational primary schools in the country.
Calling out the UP CM’s “carelessness” towards the education and progress of the state, Akhilesh Yadav said the state government should “think that 11 lakh primary schools have been shut, most of them being in UP”.
“It is very clear that CM has nothing to do with language or progress. If you look at the record, 11 lakh primary schools have been shut. How many intermediate schools have been opened? Be it Polytechnic, ITI or Engineering – how much of it is being taken care of by the Government? How to improve the quality of education? Reports have come from time to time…Government should think that 11 lakh primary schools have been shut, most of them being in UP,” the ex-UP CM told news agency ANI.
Another SP leader Mata Prasad Pandey accused Yogi Aditynath of deliberately making this a Hindu-Muslim subject.
“Urdu is also a language. The matter raised in Vidhan Sabha was in another prospect, but he (Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath) talked about Urdu to carry forward his agenda of Hindu-Muslim. We were opposing the entry of English language in Vidhan Sabha, but somehow the matter became about Urdu language,” he said.
On Tuesday, Yogi Adityanath attacked the Samajwadi Party for opposing Bhojpuri and Awadhi languages accusing the party of trying to turn the children into maulvis.
Accusing the SP – the principal opposition party – of having double standards, he said the party leaders send their children to English medium schools but demand promotion of Urdu as a language. The CM was making a statement following introduction of regional dialects and languages like Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj and English in the Vidhan Sabha.